Music lovers know the Pickathon music festival for its diverse selection of stellar performers, beautiful natural setting, and friendly vibe. But over the last several years, the festival organizers have been increasing their emphasis on sustainability and design through a partnership with the PSU School of Architecture. This year, Pickathon (August 5 – 7, 2016, in Happy Valley) will feature the School of Architecture’s latest rendition of the Treeline Stage, an original, temporary, minimal-waste performance venue made from nearly 1,300 pieces of dimensional lumber, known to those in the building industry as the humble 2x4.
This creation is the newest product of a four-year collaboration with Pickathon. In 2013, PSU Architecture students designed an elegant, sustainable gateway installation entirely out of giant bamboo stalks for the 3,500 attendees, many of whom would enter the event through that gateway. This collaboration gave way in 2014 to the first Treeline Stage, innovatively designed and built by PSU Architecture students using 520 wooden shipping pallets, and in 2015 to the second Treeline Stage, a dreamy design concoction made from 435 large cardboard tubes, which received a Jury Award from the Portland chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Provided by construction firm Lease Crutcher Lewis, the nearly 1,280 2x4s of the 2016 Treeline Stage are combined to form a soaring, 28-foot-tall structure made up of a series of leaning linear elements that intersect each other as they reach the sky at the edge of the forest, signaling to musicians and music lovers alike that this is a place of transformative, collective musical experiences.
Typically hidden as basic framing or formwork, the wood here is coaxed into life, demonstrating that utilitarian materials can simultaneously be functional, beautiful, and reusable. Stretching skyward, the interlocking elements dance together; each agile frame takes its cue from the one placed before, interlocked and fanning into a lithe rotation that engages all directions of landscape and festival.
The design acknowledges and enriches the collective celebration but also stands as an object in its own right. As one circles the stage, the changing nature of its performance unfolds, achieving what architectural theorist David Leatherbarrow describes as architecture’s unique ability to “both adhere to and distinguish itself from its context and program.” Rather than simply present its face to the audience, this year’s design is poised at the brink of motion, dancing through space, base rooted in steadfast topography, top extending toward capricious heavens. The architectural phenomenon advances and retreats across the landscape in a two-step performance. Together a series of figures offer themselves in an energetic state of counter-positioning, or contrapposto.
Like its two eponymous predecessors, the structure will leave no trace once the festival is over, except in the memories of the 3,500 attendees who will have the chance to experience its beauty. All its components will be repurposed and reused, making minimal to no impact on the site or on the waste stream.
In what has become a tradition for the Treeline Stage, the concept of “diversion design-build” is the overriding theme. The design team’s goal was to create an extraordinary performance setting from everyday materials that are temporarily diverted from their usual industrial purpose, and then sent back to work once the festival ends. This year is no exception, as the wood studs of the Treeline Stage will be reclaimed by Lease Crutcher Lewis and repurposed for concrete formwork, rough carpentry, and backing at construction sites throughout Oregon.
The project is led by Assistant Professor Travis Bell, and Clive Knights, Professor and Director of the School of Architecture. Graduate architecture students form the design-build team, joined by other students, alumni, and volunteers during the on-site fabrication process. Evocative, dynamic, colorful lighting created by Dan Meeker, a theater designer and PSU assistant professor of scenic and lighting design, will add to the visual drama each night after dark, once the sun’s natural rays, gleaming over the edges and of the studs throughout the day, have faded.
"I continue to be inspired by our ongoing collaboration with the PSU School of Architecture," said Pickathon's cofounder and director Zale Schoenborn. "The students and faculty each year dig deeper to create an awe-inducing structure that elevates the audience's experience at the festival, and each year they have outdone themselves. This year's Treeline Stage is hands-down the most dramatic to date, raising the level of art and beauty at this unique gathering we love so well."
The Treeline Stage, one of six performance venues at the festival, is expected to hold as many as 1,000 audience members and will be the site of 18 performances by a plethora of diverse bands, including Woolen Men, La Luz, Kevin Morby and Cass McCombs.
2016 Treeline Stage facts:
2”x 4”x 16’ wood studs: 1,280
Metal screws: 3,500
Height (in feet): 28
Student designer-builders: 20
Bands performing in the Treeline Stage: 18 (plus one spoken-word performance)
Audience capacity: 1,000
Total festival attendees: 3,500
Days the stage will be in use: 4
Hours devoted to construction: 1,080
Hours devoted to de-construction: 480